What do you call the media that is not the "Main Stream Media?"

ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, et, al are called the main stream (or as some people call it "Lame Stream") media. What do you call, Fox News, Breitbart, Drudge Report, Alt Right, et al? And how does one distinguish fake news from real news anymore? I noticed now on hub pages, sources for information can be cited and it means nothing to people who would rather not accept the source, even if the sources as are as close as one can get to the facts. Facts are meaningless anymore, because there are so many versions of the same topic or event and people choose to believe what fits their values and beliefs

I'm 75 now and for many years the news was the news, the truth told without any political shenanigans, or at least I thought so. Now I'm not so sure. These days it's all politics. many times over the years I've written that we are very lucky to have the main stream media as a kind of third party keeping the other two in check by reporting the truth all day everyday.

I had a huge disagreement with one of my kids as to who was going to win this years election so I watched all the news media including YouTube, Drudge, Politico, Infowars, and all the main stream media outlets at least a dozen times a day since the election began.

I still can't believe what a bunch on BS liar's the main stream media has become. You know exactly what I'm talking about and to be honest, they have done this country a grave injustice. There used to be a time where you got sued for lying about someone or something.

Here's the bottom line: This country cannot tolerate any entity with the power of the media printing or saying on TV anything they wish if it is not 100% true. Controls must put in place that will prevent any main stream media from saying or printing absolutely anything that isn't 100% true without any opinions suggesting the reader or listener read something else into the printed material or comments outside of the editorial departments that should exercise freedom of speech.

These guidelines should be strictly enforced by an FCC oversight committee set up solely to keep an eye on the media. Any transgression by the media would immediately garnish huge fines, possible loss of various licenses to operate, and even jail time.

There are many ways to spin the truth and make it sound like the complete opposite as you know and the media that can make the most noise for the longest time is likely to be the media that is to be believed no matter what they say. Case in point, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

This media propaganda BS cannot be allowed to continue....

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I totally agree. The media was singled out in the Constitution to be the watchdog over our elected officials. They have a real responsibility at the truth. Without it, wr are all blind. We can't all be investigative journalists.

I agree, and further, there are no NEWS stations because no one reports the NEWS. Reporting the News doesn't include commentary, conclusions, suppositions, opinions are anything NOt a Fact. and the story has to have had its "FACTS" checked and rechke

Good answers everybody. But I'm from the generation of Walter Conkite, Huntley Brinkley, and even Edward R, Murrow. There were no Gimmicks. They just presented the news only once, each night. There were no panels and no 24 hour news cycles and echo chambers.

Huntley presented one view of the news and Brinkley presented the opposing view. There were comedians that presented political satire to point out hypocrisies in thinking and is still used that way today. I think when Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine is when the news split into the liberal and conservative camps. Because of the digital technology today, the news can be presented in so many flavors and you get to choose what is real, what is fake and what is simply spinning the facts.

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There is main street media, nyt, abc, cbs, nbc and there is cable news, cnn, fox, msnbc and AON...

It is up to the viewer to determine who is telling the truth and what are their bias. All outfits have a bias whether they admit it or not. That's ok to have bias just so the people are told up front. What makes for fake news are like the onion, and daily show and colbert report who uses satire to report the news. They are NOT news, not even close.

I check all sorces and even check some snope sites to make sure the news is not a spoof. good luck getting to the truth. I blame joirnalism for abandoning their mandate to keep tabs on people in power. Where are woodward and berstein of today???

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Jack: Why is it that the Daily Show and Colbert have noted guests, like Trump, Obama, McCain, Biden, and others of those positions if it is fake news? Their satire is used to point out the fakery and hypocrisy in political deception.

We don't really have NEWS anymore. Not in print, not on TV, and of course not on the Internet.

We are lucky if these sources can actually verify the facts.

Remember on 911, the MSM reported that a light plane hit the WTC. Anyone that could have been at the scene and made that report was so wrong, that it makes you wonder if they actually saw it.

When Cable News was created, the Real News started into a death roll. It has been dead for a long time now. You notice that MSM is not MSN, where M is Media not NEWS.

The MSM is not interested in reporting the news, it is interested in selling advertising and making profits. Controversy brings in viewers, much like the audience when the Romans advertised the Christians versus the Lions. Although, the Lions were undefeated, I imagine.

The MSM is not the 4th estate, it is more like the rumor mill. Headlines are just a way of attacking because, it is like pressing on a open toothpaste tube, once it gets out, it won't go back in.

The "News" agencies have become a 4th branch of govt. It is the steroid version of the court of public opinion, sans public.

It is also like the X Files premise, People want to believe.

A special kind of media rumor are the political polls. They are really a mechanism of social reengineering. IMO, instead of monitoring the opinion of the people, they are actually using the results of these polls to create the public opinion they want to set. This then creates a domino affect to the next poll, and so on.

Remember, how wrong the polls were in this election.

I always thought it was ridiculous to listen to a speech, and then have someone tell me what I should think it means. The whole MSM are filled with Pundit Puppets, both wings have them.

They however do little to change the majority of the loyal party voters. It is like the wild predators, most of their kills come from the weak, because the healthy are too fast and smart for them to get.

My answer is MSM doesn't have an opposite like the NEWS.

Yellow journalism last century wounded the News, but the Creation of Cable News, and Internet News put a mortal stake into it.

RIP

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As a professional journalist, we were taught that there were three kinds of journalism (news): main stream, specialty (still credible news but published by religious organizations with a religious slant), and Yellow Journalism.

So, if it isn't mainstream and it isn't specialty, then it's YELLOW JOURNALISM.

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